Matanzas, Cuba – The Cuban would-be emigrants at the center of a watershed U.S. judicial ruling on what constitutes “dry land” are elated at the prospect of finally being allowed to go to what they see as a Promised Land.

But whether their up-and-down odyssey will end with a comfortable airline flight remains to be seen, and some say if the trip is not approved by authorities of both Cuba and Washington, they will risk their lives again on a makeshift boat.

Two months after making their dangerous sea voyage in an attempt to reach U.S. soil, 15 people here again were making preparations to travel to Florida – this time as beneficiaries of a Miami court ruling.

“We’re happy, content and supposedly in less than a month we should be there,” said Ernesto Hernandez, a 47-year-old tire retreader who set out for Florida on the precarious homemade vessel along with his wife and 13-year-old son.

The boat they built themselves at a cost of some $4,000 – approximately their combined net worth – miraculously arrived Jan. 4 at an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, sent them home several days later after concluding that the spot they had reached did not constitute dry land under the government’s wet-foot, dry-foot Cuban immigration policy.

That decision, however, was reversed Tuesday by a Miami federal judge, who ruled that the Cubans had in fact reached U.S. soil and – under the terms of the Clinton-era policy – should have been allowed to remain in the country and apply for residency.

Eleven of the 15 would-be immigrants gathered at a home in a poor neighborhood of Matanzas, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Havana, reflected on their experiences of the past two months.

The Cubans’ eyes lit up at the possibility of being able to return to the United States, but they turned serious when thinking back on the Coast Guard patrol boat that returned them to their homeland.

“It still hurts,” said Lazaro Martinez, who noted that the Coast Guardsmen picked them up at the base of one of the supports of the broken and disused structure.

“They told us they would take us to have a beer in Florida,” said Martinez, chagrined by what turned out to be a lie. He said they were transferred from one Coast Guard vessel to another, “which sailed away from the coast, and kept going.”

Since returning to Cuba on Jan. 9, the would-be immigrants have closely followed the legal proceedings “step by step, day by day, waiting (for news and staying) in constant communication” with their family members in Florida.

Martinez, 31, said he remembered the abandoned bridge where the group landed, insisting that it was connected to the coast and that in arriving there they had passed another bridge traveled over by vehicles.

But his frustration was assuaged by the recent turn of events that could lead to his eventual arrival in the United States.

Martinez hailed the efforts of Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Miami-based Cuban exile group Democracy Movement, saying he “was the one who staged the (hunger) strike and from the beginning was the driving force (in bringing about) this reality we’re experiencing now.”

“It’s been worth it, at least now others will be able to benefit from it (the judicial ruling),” he said.

“When you return after having left it all behind, after months of hiding (the vessel), getting materials and suffering every night, you want to die,” Ernesto Hernandez said.

Every one in the group expressed confidence they could live out their dreams in the United States. Hermes Hernandez, 22, said he was a black belt in karate and wanted to earn a living from the sport, while Noel Lazaro Reyes said he dreamed of owning his own tractor-trailer truck.

Ernesto, meanwhile, said he could see himself doing a number of things, but was considering the possibility of opening a tire retreading store.

“I haven’t lived up to now how I would like to and now I want to live the way I want the rest of my life and see my family get ahead,” he said.

They said they were convinced U.S. officials will grant them a safe conduct pass for entering the country, and that Cuban authorities will let them leave.

If denied permission, however, they said they were prepared to try their luck at sea yet again.

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